8th Sakai Conference

4-7 December 2007Newport Beach

Sakaibrary Project Update: Sakaibrary Project Update: Subject Research GuidesSubject Research Guides

December 6, 2007

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Background Background • Collaborative project of Indiana University

Libraries and the University of Michigan Library

• Funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation • Project partners

Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Stanford

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Sakaibrary Project GoalsSakaibrary Project Goals• Build tools to provide seamless integration of

content from licensed library databases within Sakai for instructors

• Leverage existing library technology infrastructure • Prototype functionality for librarians to present

content in Sakai and students to discover licensed content within Sakai

• Engage librarians, students, and faculty in the design and testing

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Project FocusProject Focus

• Citations helper - new features in 2.5

• Working prototype of Subject Research Guides (SRG) by June

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MilestonesMilestones• Usage scenarios – March 2006• First phase implementation – October 2006

– Citation list as Sakai resource– Searching library resources through OSID connector to

metasearch tools– OpenURL linking

• Usability testing – November 2006• Reworked designs - Dec thru Feb 2007• Quality Assurance - March thru April 2007• Released citations helper in Sakai 2.4 - May 2007

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Example: Usage Scenario Example: Usage Scenario Summary: Dr. Smith teaches an introductory course in the

History department. For the course research paper, he wants to point his students to scholarly resources available via the library, rather than have them use Google. Dr. Smith also wants his students to have easy access to reference librarians for research help, as well as understand the basics of plagiarism.

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The Research Process and The Research Process and Student LearningStudent Learning

• Librarians regularly teach sessions on information research within a course

• Faculty to develop course assignments which require it

• Librarians provide reference services and support for the process

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The Subject Research GuideThe Subject Research Guide• Research guides lead a new researcher to

the best sources and research tools for a discipline or topic

• Teach the process of information discovery and selection

• Vary greatly in level of depth and specificity

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The Subject Research GuideThe Subject Research Guide• Offer resources and services to for continued

exploration or support• Offer asynchronous instruction to users at

their convenience• Typically delivered through library web sites

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Course-specific Research Course-specific Research GuidesGuides

• Faculty requested• Developed as part of a Web CMS

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Pre-Sakai integration

Post-Sakai integration

Sample Courses Page visits Page visitsPage visit

  2005 - 2006 2006 - 2007 IncreasePublic Speaking (100 level) 4783 5670 26%Basic Composition (100 level) 2799 6177 65%

Advanced Writing (300 level) 290 319 9%Social Science (300 level) 333 405 18%Total 8205 12571 34%

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SRG ExamplesSRG Examples• Psychology – University of Michigan

Graduate Libraryhttp://www.lib.umich.edu/grad/guide/guide.php?id=1

• Accounting – Rutgers University Library http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/busi/account.shtml

• Language & Literature – Oregon State University Library

http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/research/srg/langlit.htm

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SRG Data ElementsSRG Data Elements• Title and other metadata• Citations and citation lists• Links to library databases• Canned search link for Web, database, or library catalog• Constrained search box for Web, databases, or library catalog• RSS feeds• Links to arbitrary web sites• Links to people (e.g. subject librarian)• Freeform rich text• Audio files• Comments and annotations

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SRG OrganizationSRG Organization• Various ways to organize guides and components

of guides:– Type of resource– Subject and sub-area– Course and coursework (syllabus, assignments)– Information need– Type of user

• Document structure needs to be flexible– Storage as XML document– Potential interchange format with other systems

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SRG AuthoringSRG Authoring• Need to support:

– Creation– Editing– Sharing– Using existing guides as templates– Authoring by librarians and others (instructors,

students)

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SRG AuthoringSRG Authoring• Authoring interface should be flexible and

interactive– Use of AJAX/DHTML– Probably based on RSF and Dojo– Looking at Fluid toolkit

• Learn from other similar UIs:– LibGuides– Google Notebook

• Probably implemented as Sakai tool

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SRG Timeline SRG Timeline • Goal: Develop initial version by Summer

2008 Sakai Conference• Mellon grant ends June 2008• Seek additional funding to complete

development